Talk:witfish
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Rfv-sense: Albula indica - obsolete taxonomy, so probably irrelevant for us? Zemely Nashka (talk) 21:41, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
- If the species got split, witfish is theoretically valid as a term for the species it was split up into, which might be (just a guess based on geography) Albula argentea and Albula glossodonta. But it seems difficult to find attestation for either the word "witfish" or the deprecated species name albula indica outside of dictionaries. At first I thought that I could connect the word "witfish" directly to the newer species names I suspect replaced the original, but even on Fishbase, which has usually been helpful with questions like this, I've still come up empty. We don't seem to use the word whitefish, which would be the expected translation, for these species either. There is a second witvis found in Africa, Cheilobarbus capensis, so if something comes from my research it might be an improvement to that page, but I'll hold off for now. —Soap— 23:38, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
- To be honest, Im having trouble finding anything outside of dictionaries for witfish in any sense. I wrote that above but it didnt occur to me that we might need to expand the RFV. Webster lists our word as a synonym for ladyfish, but that has at least three definitions as well. Which fish is the witfish? There does seem to be at least something worth saving, but even one site where I saw "witfish" used to describe albula indica also uses it for another fish called Teniae dictae, also calling that "witt fish" and week fish (weakfish?) which suggests it may never have had a pinned down definition like what we normally expect with species names. Teniae dictae is even more obscure and hard to find than albula indica. —Soap— 23:52, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
- Albula indica may be a pre-Linnaean name unconnected to modern taxonomy. I would not assume it is in the same genus or even family as the genus now known as Albula. Vox Sciurorum (talk) 00:01, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
- I don't expect a one-word vernacular name, especially if old, to have an unambiguous referent among contemporary taxonomic names. Fishbase provides ample demonstration of this. I sometimes wonder how we get a single species as referent for a term in a proto-language. A broad or ambiguous definition based on cites is probably all that it possible. DCDuring (talk) 02:24, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
- Failed. Too much theory, not enough cites Jewle V (talk) 11:33, 18 September 2023 (UTC)